1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and program for selecting from among a plurality of photographic images, which have been obtained by photography.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital cameras (in the following description, the term “digital camera” includes cellular telephones with built in cameras) are becoming widespread. The capacities of internal memories and external memory cards for recording and storing photographic images obtained by digital cameras are increasing, while the costs thereof are decreasing. Accompanying these trends, photography using digital cameras is being performed freely, and there is a tendency for the number of photographed images to increase exponentially. For example, the same subject is photographed a plurality of times when photographing a portrait, to obtain an image at a moment in which the subject has the most photogenic expression on his/her face. Also, during photography of athletic events, it is common to perform continuous photography of a plurality of images to obtain an image of a specific moment. When viewing and editing this great number of image data sets, it is necessary to be able to find a “best shot”, that is, images that the user favors.
Various software programs for managing photographic images have been developed. For example, there are those that display photographic images, which have been obtained by a digital camera, as thumbnail images. When one of the thumbnail images is selected, a computer is operated to magnify and display the selected image. However, it is difficult to select a best shot from thumbnail images, as it is often the case that thumbnail images are too small to discern facial expressions of subjects therein. On the other hand, if the image is magnified and displayed, judgments regarding image quality are facilitated. However, as it is difficult to simultaneously view and compare a plurality of magnified images, selection of a best shot takes trouble and is inefficient.
Recently, print order reception devices are also becoming widespread. These print order reception devices enable selection of images to be printed, from among those recorded in a recording medium such as a memory card and a CD-ROM, only in two modes. In a first mode, the recording medium is inserted into the device, the photographic images are all displayed simultaneously, and the images desired as prints are specified. In a second mode, a “print all” button is pressed to order prints of all of the photographic images. In the first mode, there is a problem that judgments regarding image quality are difficult to make for the images which are simultaneously displayed, as described above. Meanwhile, the second mode is wasteful and uneconomical, because unnecessary images are printed as well as those for which printing is desired.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-256498 discloses a method of automatically selecting best shots from among a great number of photographic images. In this method, analytical processes are administered on a plurality of photographic images. Photographic images are classified into two categories and saved. The two categories are: those that satisfy predetermined judgment standards (qualified images) and those that do not (failed images). In this manner, best shots and other photographic images are automatically classified without user operations. Therefore, this method is efficient. A printer may perform different processes with respect to the qualified images and the failed images. Examples of these different processes are: printing only the qualified images; and printing the qualified images as full sized prints while printing the failed images as index prints.
However, when photographing images of athletic events, for example, there are cases in which only one image is obtained of a certain moment (for example, when a goal is scored). In such a case, a photographer desires to keep this image, regardless of the image quality thereof. However, there is a possibility that the method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-256498 would judge this image as a failed image. Therefore, problems arise afterwards when output processes, such as printing, are performed on the photographic images which have been classified. That is, an image of a scene which is important to the photographer may not be printed, or only printed as an index print.